Sunday, May 30, 2010

PIGEONS AT THE FESTIVAL. The Melbourne Town Hall opened its doors to storymakers of all kinds imaginable for the Emerging Writers Festival 2010. The Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) exists to promote the interests of emerging writers – to improve their opportunities for professional development and their engagement with the broader public.Events included topics like The Pitch, Two Sides of the Coin, Style Vs Substance and Mining the Personal. I was drawn to rising early on Saturday morning and training in to hear Jenna Williams and Lachlan Carter in conversation with Bernard Caleo. The topic was The Pigeons Project. Jenna and Lachlan founded Pigeons in 2009 - a community group dedicated to assisting children in improving their literacy skills and developing a passion for reading and writing. By offering project-based learning activities in line with teacher needs and curriculum objectives, Pigeons aims to cultivate creative partnerships between local public schools, authors and artists. Last year I was involved with the inaugural project at North Melbourne Primary School along with twelve other authors. The coup has now grown to twenty and we will be working this year with a class at Footscray City PS. Please visit the Pigeons website and learn how you can become involved with a remarkable team of creatives. http://pigeonsprojects.org/

Greg O'Leary and I packed out our little marquee at the Lit Fest. It was the perfect venue for storytelling and acoustic music. The festival had a theme 'West of the Yarra' so we began in the 1880s with the soundscapes and stories of the gold rush. From there we jumped river to the foothills of the Dandenongs and I told the story of the first lyrebird to be recorded and broadcast on the wireless - this took us up to the 1930's. Greg followed this up with my current favourite song - the Connemara piper - a man who when he piped made fat people thiner and thin people fatter. Then it was back to the 1800s with a change of plans. We discovered a young fellow in the audience who was keen on fiddle playing - so Greg played the tunes that were played in the Glenrowan Pub the night before the siege and the capture of Ned Kelly. Of course they were actually played on a concertina - but you all knew that! We were excited to have Tito in the audience from Radio Australia. Tito is making a program on storytelling traditions in Australia and Indonesia. Greg and I are honoured to be part of the documentary.

Thank you to the Williamstown Literary for a wonderful weekend of stories, talks, workshops and games.

For the Williamstown Festival 2010 - GetUp OutWest arranged for Glenn Shea to run a session featuring a board game he developed as part of his work in youth justice.

The Storyteller is an educational tool. It provides knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal people, society and cultural in a fresh,fun and stimulating way. It encourages student inquiry whilst engaging students in literacy and numeracy skills. The educational resource is also generic and

non-political.

Glen, a Wathaurong/Ngarrindjeri man, is a graduate of NIDA and a familiar face on several well-known television dramas. Recently he was involved in the dramatised documentary about William Buckley - working with local Wathaurong actors and actors brought down to Victoria from the Top End.

The Storyteller attracted a good number of keen players at the festival. If you're interested in The Storyteller, Glenn Shea's contact details are on the website www.indigenousstoryteller.com/